“I’m having fun too,” I admitted. “But I have to think of my business. Dating the competitions… That’ll hurt my profit margins.”
“Better than a girl who hurts your heart.”
“Ah, but what about someone that doesn’t hurt either?”
Julie flipped her red hair back. “If you find a woman like that, I’ll change the name of my Cherry Berry Bingo smoothie.”
“Oh yes? To what?”
“To Cherry Berry Blast, obviously.”
I snorted. “You’re funny.”
“Which is why you should date me,” she flirted. Her dark eyes smouldered as she reached across the table and brushed a finger over the top of my hand. “I think we’d have a lot of fun.”
Despite knowing better, I didn’t pull my hand away and instead, enjoyed the tingling sensation she elicited. Her feathery touch was light and no matter how much I wanted to deny it, made my chest flutter.
There was something about this woman… She was making me feel things I hadn’t felt in a long time. Maybe it was just nice to be flirted with but it was more than that. I wanted to flirt back.
I watched her finger draw invisible circles on my skin and let myself enjoy the sensation. The candle light suddenly didn’t seem so awful anymore. In fact, it only added to the surprising intimacy generated in less than five minutes. If she could set this mood during a speed date, who knew what she could do on a proper date.
No, I shouldn’t be thinking things like that. I really couldn’t date her. It would only bring trouble and that was exactly what I was trying to avoid.
I pulled my hand back, immediately missing her touch. I pretended I didn’t see the disappointment on her face and covered up my own with a big glug from my wine.
“So… Do you speed date a lot?” I asked between sips.
“No, not really. I’m mostly too busy but the festival is kind of like a holiday.”
“But you’re working?”
“Yes, but I’m also away from home and my shop. I have time carved out for relaxing and enjoying a good drink and meeting new, interesting people.” She caught my eyes as she slowly drew out her sentence, the sparkle hard to resist. “You interest me.”
I could feel my mouth going dry. “Why?”
“Why don’t I explain that to you on a second date?” she suggested, waggling her eyebrows.
Before I could answer, the bell rang again and Julie got up from her seat. She leaned in across the table and for a moment, I thought she was going to kiss me.
Her lips inched closer but instead of making contact, moved past my cheek and to my ear. Her breath tickled the sensitive skin as she whispered. “I think we could have a lot of fun. Think about it, Lisa.”
Only when she pulled away, I realised I’d stopped breathing. Damn. There was only half an hour left of the event before we were supposed to decide who we wanted to give our details to. When I first started, I didn’t think I’d be interested in anyone but that decision had just become a lot harder.
Chapter 6
The next morning, Erin was on me like a fly on honey. Blessed with having slept for more than five hours, she was buzzing with energy as she set up the stall in preparation of the day.
“And? And? How was it? Did you have fun? Did you meet someone?” she asked, bombarding me with her questions so fast, I didn’t even have time to answer all of them.
“I didn’t meet anyone,” I mumbled, trying to keep the pounding in my skull at bay. With a heavy head, I stacked oranges in a tower near the front of the booth, hoping the vibrant colour would attract a lot of people. There weren’t many clouds in the sky and the promise of sun and good weather would drive my business straight toward profit.
At least that was something to look forward to. Spending the rest of the day with a slight hangover was not. I knew I shouldn't have had that last glass of wine, I was no longer a teenager, my body and liver were weak. I couldn’t drink like I used to anymore, not even close.
A shadow fell over me and I looked up to find someone queuing.
“Sorry, we’re not open yet,” I announced before my fuzzy brain made sense of reality. “Oh. Julie?”
The chipper redhead popped a cardboard cup of tea in front of me and shot me one of her charming smiles. “Morning. Just reporting for humiliation reminder duty but I brought you tea.”
I reached for the steaming beverage, touched that she remembered not to get me the standard coffee everyone had in the morning. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. That’s my job done.” She gestured to the colourful stall on the other side of the market where a thin guy was stacking kiwis and pineapples. Julie clicked her tongue and grinned. “Well, it’s time for me to go back to mine. See you around?”
Afraid Erin would hear me, I nodded and kept my voice down. “See you around.”
Julie was barely out of earshot or Erin was already hanging on my arm.
“I thought you said you didn’t meet anyone!”
I shrugged my best friend off. “I didn’t. We’d already met before the event, technically.”
“Oh, pish posh and details. You two hit it off then?”
I looked in the direction of Julie’s juice stall and hummed. “Sort of. It doesn’t matter, she’s going to be poaching our customers all day. Well, not on purpose but you know what I mean. We’re fishing in the same pond here.”
“Aren’t we all,” Erin snorted.
“Not the lesbian pond, the fruit juice pond!”
My best friend swung her arm over my shoulder and gestured up to the sky. “Come on, it’s going to be beautifully blue today. There will be plenty of demand for fresh juice and smoothies today.”
“You better be right,” I said.
With Erin’s help, I finished setting up the stall just in time for the festival to open for the second day. As expected from the sunny weather, the first visitors didn’t keep us waiting long.
“Two orders of orange juice coming right up!” I shouted as I started the press and cut the oranges in pieces. The peel spritzed the fresh aroma through the stall and the smell of that sweet citrus was released as soon as the juices were pressed out of the halves.
I handed our first customers their cups of fresh juice and watched as they took their first sip, relishing in the delight on their faces. There was nothing like fresh juice in the morning to get a great start to the day.
Unable to resist, I cut up some more oranges and pressed two more cups worth.
“For you,” I said, handing Erin one.
My best friend didn’t hesitate one moment as she took a sip from the paper straw. “Mmmm. So good.”
I followed suit and let the fresh flavours dance on my tongue. Sweet, slightly tangy, a perfect taste of summer. I could taste the sun in my juice and just like that, I was no longer worried about profits or competition. The oranges spoke for themselves.
The rest of the morning passed in a flash. The beautiful weather delivered plenty of thirsty people to my booth and the pile of oranges and other fruits was quickly declining. People were in a generous mood and couldn’t resist spending their money, either on food or drink. It was a good day for every stall at the festival and I could feel the buzz in the air.
Whistling, I cut up more oranges and handed them to Erin for pressing. Despite her only helping out every now and then, she was really competent and if she wasn’t so in love with her film making, I’d hire her permanently.
We worked seamlessly through the lunch rush, which was a little quieter for us than food stalls, and put a good dent in our fruit supply. With every sold cup of juice, my good mood grew and there was nothing that could ruin it.
I even hummed a little song while I was cleaning some of the blenders in the back. Even though technically Erin owed me for going on the speed dating, I wasn’t going to hold her to it. It was my business after all.
“Oh oh,” Erin muttered.
The first hint of dread circled up from my stomach as I rinsed the bla
des. “What?”
“The Juicy Lady… They’re handing out samples.”
I shrugged, not wanting to kill my good mood by worrying about Julie and her fancy smoothies. If they wanted to hand out samples, they could hand out samples. It was none of my concern.
“Good for them,” I replied magnanimously as I shook the water off the tops of the blender. “I hope they have a great day. A fantastic day, even.”
Erin let out a funny sound. “Yeahhh… but they’re handing out samples in our zone.”
“What?!” I rushed towards the front of our stall to see for myself. Julie was parading around the festival with a serving tray full of little cups of smoothies, which she handed out like candy. Which wouldn’t be a problem if she wasn’t doing it right in front of our stall. There was a reason our two booths were on opposite ends of the market and she was clearly violating the unspoken rule of sticking to our side.
She intercepted two women approaching my stall and handed them a sample, before directing them to the other side of the festival to her booth. So much for friendly competition. If that wasn’t customer poaching, I didn’t know what was.
If she thought I was going to let this slide, she had no idea who she was messing with.
I yanked off my apron and threw it on the counter. “Watch the stall for me.”
“You got it,” Erin mumbled, the worry clear in her voice.
She knew better than to stop me though.
I stormed through the people, heading directly for Julie and her tray of samples.
“Hey!” I shouted, spooking away a mother and a child. Whatever.
Julie directed her charming smile towards me. “Hello, Lisa. How nice to see you.”
“No, it’s not nice to see me. What do you think you’re doing?”
“Handing out samples,” she replied innocently while presenting her tray to me. “Want one? I’ve got Cucumber Fresh, Lemon Zingers, and your favourite, Cherry Berry Bingo.”
“You are unbelievable,” I huffed. “Hand out samples in your own zone!”
“Zone?” She gestured around. “I don’t see any zones.”
“It’s an unspoken rule, duh. Why do you think the two brownie stalls are on opposite ends? Or the two mead dealers? Direct competitors stick to their side. If you weren’t first timers here at the festival, you’d know.”
Only when I finished ranting, I realised I’d gone straight for the attack and never gave her the benefit of the doubt that perhaps, this was an honest mistake.
Even though her smile never faltered, the look in Julie’s eyes changed. “Well, aren’t you a doll for pointing that out.”
Damn, I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.
Before I could apologise, Julie flashed me a daring grin. “Well, there’s only one reason you made a scene. Scared of a little competition, huh?”
I glared at her. “I’m not scared.”
She chuckled as she handed out two more samples to passing people. “Well, then bite me.”
“What?”
Julie turned away, her voice raised. “Fresh juice and smoothies! Get the best juice and smoothies at The Juicy Lady! Come and try some of our most popular flavours now!”
Ugh! So infuriating.
I stomped back to my booth, the plans brewing in my head. If she wanted to challenge me, it was on.
Erin read my mood before I even said a word. She held up a roll of plastic shot glasses and smirked. “I’m guessing we’re handing out samples too?”
I flashed her a battle grin of my own. “You bet.”
Chapter 7
Not one to pass up a challenge, I was flat out exhausted by the end of the day. Between Erin and me, we’d handed out more samples than I could count and reduced our supply of fruit to a record low for day two.
While the festival was shutting down, we cleaned the stall and washed out the blenders in satisfied silence. My whole body ached from being on my feet and I could feel the effects of being out in the sun the whole day. Still, the muscle strain was rewarding and felt like an achievement. Even if I had no idea how much Julie and The Juicy Lady sold, it didn’t matter. We ended up making a small fortune and that made us a winner. I wasn’t even mad anymore.
Satisfied, I patted Erin on the back. “Well done today. We slayed.”
“Yeah, we did.”
“Go home and get some rest, I’ll finish cleaning up. You’ve done plenty today.”
“It was lots of fun,” my best friend grinned as she threw her towel in the pile of dirty laundry and rinsed her hands. “Right, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yup. Say hello to Tasha for me.”
“Will do!” Erin called as she grabbed her bag and left the stall. “Byeee.”
I gave her a little wave and returned to tidying up the rest of my things while I was still buzzing and had the energy. I knew that as soon as I sat down, I’d collapse and be useless for the rest of the evening.
Just as I was on my way out, a figure leaned over the counter with a big smile. “So how was your day?”
“Pretty fucking awesome,” I admitted as I took off my apron and looked up at the redhead. She didn’t seem mad anymore so perhaps she had a good day as well. “How was yours?”
Julie grinned. “Same. I enjoy some healthy competition.” She caught my eyes and paused. “You want to get a drink?”
I stared at her, not sure if I was supposed to be flattered or annoyed. “You have some nerve handing out samples on our side and then asking me out for a drink.”
“You’re right…” She paused for a bit as she chewed on her lip. “I wanted to apologise about that, I really didn’t know about the sides thing.”
“And I shouldn’t have assumed you did. I’m sorry too,” I admitted. We both made a mistake but I liked that she was mature enough to admit it. More than that, I liked that I felt I could admit my fault too.
We stared at each other for a moment, the silence filled with expectations. Just when I was going to say something, Julie spoke instead.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then. Sorry, again.” She shot me a warm smile and turned, ready to walk away.
“Wait, what about that drink?” I called after her.
Julie paused and looked back over her shoulder. “Sorry?”
“Didn’t you want to go for a drink?”
The redhead looked slightly taken aback. “I thought… Yes, I’d love a drink.”
“Perfect.” I locked my stall and joined her on the other side of the counter. The warm evening created a nice, cosy atmosphere and even though the festival was over, there were still plenty of people about.
A big grin grew on Julie’s face. “Where are we going?”
“Rainbow Central since it’s across the road?” I proposed as I started walking in the direction of the bar, leaving the empty stalls and booths behind.
Julie matched my pace effortlessly and we fell in a comfortable rhythm as we crossed the street to the cosy bar. I opened the door and held it for her like a gentlewoman, earning an appreciative smile from her.
The bar was surprisingly busy but nothing out of the ordinary for a saturday evening. It was rather early so the atmosphere was tame and intimate, rather than wild and drunk.
We chose a table in the corner with a single candle and sat down on opposite sides of each other, reminiscent of the speed dating the night before.
“Well… Here we are,” Julie declared, looking at me expectantly.
“Here we are,” I repeated, feeling slightly awkward now we were sitting down together. The whole day, we’d been playing off of each other and letting the buzz guide us, but now it was painfully clear that we didn’t know each other.
I grabbed the menu and hid behind it, trying to pick out a drink.
“What are you having?” Julie asked as she studied the list herself.
“Not white wine,” I muttered, thinking back to the pinching headache it gave me this morning. “I did like the cocktails yesterday. Which
one was it that we got?”
“I think it was the Rainbow Central cocktail. They were very tasty. I wouldn’t mind another one of those.”
With that decided, I shot a look around to see if I could catch a server so we could get our order taken. I was sure I’d feel more at ease with a drink in hand.
It was Quinn who came to our table with a little notebook. “Evening, ladies. What can I get you two?”
“I’ll have the Rainbow Central cocktail,” I ordered, putting the menu back in its little stand.
“Same,” Julie replied, doing the same.
“Excellent.” Quinn jotted down our order and examined us both. “Hey, weren’t you two here last night?”
“Yes, we were,” I confirmed. “I’m Lisa, Erin’s friend?”
“Oh, right. From the juice stall.” She tapped the pen against her chin. “We haven’t released contact details from the speed dating yet. Did you two exchange numbers?”
Worried she was accusing us of breaking the rules, I quickly shook my head. “No, no. Julie is also working at the festival. We actually met before last night.”
“Oh, I see. Well, I hope you have a good time then.” Quinn smiled and flicked her notebook closed. “Two cocktails coming right up.”
She strutted away, leaving me and Julie chuckling awkwardly.
“Did she think we broke the rules?” I whispered.
Julie laughed. “Definitely. Come to think of it, did you leave your details for me?”
“Did you?”
She raised an eyebrow. “I asked first.”
“Ladies first.”
“I insist.”
“So do I.”
She stared at me, the realisation dawning on her face. “You didn’t leave your number for me, did you?”
I scoffed, taking aback by how sure she sounded. “I. I… No, I… didn’t. I told you, I don’t date my competition. Usually…”
“Right.”
My cheeks burned hot. Unsure if she was insulted or hurt, I couldn’t but apologise. “Sorry.”
“No, it’s fine.”
The awkward tension hanging between us was given a brief respite when Quinn brought us our drinks. She placed two colourful cocktails with metal straws on coasters and wished us a good night.
Eat Your Heart Out: A Romance Charity Anthology Page 50
